NORFOLK, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ReAlta Life Sciences, Inc. (“ReAlta”), a company addressing life-threatening diseases through harnessing the power of the immune system, today announced that it has dosed the first subject in a Phase 1 study to evaluate RLS-0071 in healthy volunteers. RLS-0071 is the lead compound of a platform of proprietary engineered peptides that leverage a billion years of evolution with a dual targeting mechanism that inhibits components of the complement cascade and cellular inflammatory processes. RLS-0071 is in development for treatment of Acute Lung Injury (ALI) as a result of viral infections such as COVID-19, RSV, and influenza.

“The initiation of this trial is a significant milestone for ReAlta as we are advancing RLS-0071 in development to treat a number of acute hospital-based indications with our novel dual targeting mechanism,” said Ulrich Thienel, M.D., Ph.D., ReAlta’s Chief Executive Officer. “The results from our healthy volunteers study will inform our ongoing ALI study in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, as well as future programs in hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in newborns and hemolytic transfusion reactions. We look forward to obtaining data from this study as it progresses and continues to support our other programs.”

The Phase 1 trial is a single ascending dose randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, adaptive-design study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, PK and PD of RLS-0071 in healthy subjects.

About ReAlta Life Sciences

ReAlta Life Sciences, Inc. is a clinical stage biotech company dedicated to harnessing the power of the immune system through its EPICC technology platform, comprised of a family of over 160 engineered peptides, to address life-threatening medical needs. The peptide family leverages one billion years of evolution that has enabled the human astrovirus to inhibit components of the innate immune system. This novel class of therapeutics exploits the virus’ dual targeting approach and enables the rebalancing of complement and inflammatory processes in the body. The company’s pipeline is led by RLS-0071, which has been granted Orphan Drug Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency for the treatment of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) in neonates. The company launched in 2018, and is located in Norfolk, Virginia. For more information, please visit www.realtalifesciences.com.

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